An Extraordinary Life: Joliet veterinarian was a '24/7 guy'

JOLIET – With a laugh, Linda Graham of LaGrange Park related the story of "the horse and the antibiotics."

Linda had accompanied her father Dr. Cecil "Doc" Ingmire, a Joliet veterinarian who treated large animals for over 50 years, on a "horse call." After starting intravenous fluids, Doc determined the horse needed antibiotic injections twice a day.

"The owner said, 'How am I going to do that? I'm not here,'" Linda said. "And Dad looked at the stable boy and said, 'I think you can do it,' and showed him how."

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Doc's wife Mary Ingmire (left) of Orland Park said, "He could train whoever needed to be trained. People said he did such a good job of teaching."

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"Doc's" daughter Celia Fitzgerald of Oregon picked up Doc's teaching ability; she recently retired from a 30-plus career in education. In an email, Celia said her father knew so many people and had so many clients, it was difficult to go anywhere without meeting one.

When Celia received her first teaching assignment, one of her supervising teachers was a sister to one of Doc's clients, Celia wrote. After Celia graduated from Illinois State University and was ready for her first job in special education, Doc gave Celia a piece of paper with the name and number for the superintendent of the school district in Blue Island and told her to contact him, she said.

"I was nervous, very young, looked very young, but the superintendent was easy to talk with and said he would like to hire me," Celia said. "[But] the superintendent also said, "Your dad may have gotten you the interview [the proverbial foot in the door]. but now you have to do the work to prove yourself."

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During their childhood, Doc involved all four of his kids with his practice in some way, Linda said. They cleaned up the clinic, answered the telephones, transfer medicine from gallon jugs to smaller bottles and wash bottles and syringes.

"Whenever his kids were able to stand a sink, they washed bottles," Linda said.

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But it was Dr. Wayne Ingmire of Kansas, Doc's son and founder of Mokena Animal Clinic, who hoofed around the most with Doc and credits his love for veterinary medicine to Doc.

"Dad made practice fun," Wayne said. "He had a great ability to interact with the clients and he had a sense of humor. He'd be giving an IV to a cow and telling a joke."

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By the time Wayne was 15, he was spending his summers working alongside Doc.

"He was a 24/7 guy," Wayne said, "I worked for him six days a week, a minimum of 12 hours a day. I figured after summer I was either going to love it or I was gong to hate it, so I said, 'Let's do this.' I felt really fortunate because I could grow up in the business and share it with my father."

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According to his obituary, Doc was president of the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association, a lifetime member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the chief veterinarian for the former Chicago-Joliet Livestock Center and, for 23 years, the Will County Animal Control administrator.

Doc also received awards and/or recognition from Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine and from the alumni associations at Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association and the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, the obituary also said.

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He also served on the advisory boards to create Veterinary Technology Programs at Parkland Community College and Joliet Junior College, as well as the Joliet Junior College board. He is a past board president and community trustee for Silver Cross Hospital, the obituary also said.

In addition, Doc was actively involved with the Will County Farm Bureau, the University of Illinois Extension Service and the 4-H. Past president of the Joliet Exchange Club, his obituary also said.

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He was also captain in the Army Veterinary Corps from 1954 to 1956.

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Doc started his practice in Ohio but soon moved to Joliet, where built Ingmire Large Animal Clinic on the same property where his family lived.

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Doc traveled to calls with a truck equipped with a refrigerator and hot and cold running water.

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Mary said the clinic was equipped for surgery, but Doc sometimes performed surgery in the orchard.

"That was a very good way to do it," Mary said. "When the animal woke up, it would just get up and walk away."

In an email, Jann Ingmire said her father was often called out of bed at night to tend to animals. Yet Jann stressed how Mary's support made such an intense practice possible.

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"She was amazing at putting a dinner together with very little warning in the days before microwave ovens," Jann Ingmire of Chicago, Doc's daughter, said. "My Dad would call the house on his 2-way radio from his truck [a mobile veterinary unit] and tell her that he'd be home in 30 minutes [or less].

"She'd have a well-balanced home cooked supper on the table for him and the family because my parents thought it was important that we eat our meals together whenever possible."

Jann said Mary was also "a smart lady," someone who completed her college education while raising four children and then worked as the health science librarian at Silver Cross Hospital, which is now in New Lenox.

"They were a good team because they loved and supported each other, but were also independent individuals," Jann wrote.

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This is not to take anything away from the special person her father was, she added.

"But he did not do it all alone and could not have done all those wonderful things without my Mom," Jann said.